Thursday, October 3, 2013

Ruslan Khasanov: Experimental Typographer Extraordinaire

Ruslan Khasanov is a designer/illustrator/photographer/typographer based in the cold, dark depths of Russia. After perusing his website for some time, I decided to post about his weird, visceral, mystical, experimental typography. He's done work for (Bloomsberg) Businessweek, The Washington Post, and the xx. Here are some examples curated by me:

Unfortunately, he does not give many hints toward his process on his website, but this looks a lot like water on a computer/tv screen. If it is not, one can only assume it is witchcraft.

Another project he did (there are actually a few in this style) is called Liquid Calligraphy.

I assume this is paint being carefully spilled into water and then photographed,

but really I have no idea, because Mr. Khasanov here is selfish and won't give away his secrets.

Here it is in action:

This one is called Lumen Type, which I'm pretty sure is made by photographic light that is sent through a little glass bead-like monocle-looking doodad.

It appears there are also mirrors/dental tools involved.

After seeing all of the real-life projects people showed last week, I wanted to look into some more tactile type-stuff, and ended up finding this guy through Daily Inspiration. I really dig his tactile approach, and I feel like he's constantly just trying new approaches of how to make type without a pen or a computer. I think his ideas are really innovative, and I think we could all learn a lesson in breaking out of the box from this guy.